Wine and Bonsai –
Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt

By Suzanne Muller and George Haas

On November 23, 2025, at the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt (BGLM), a special project was undertaken by Kyle Jeffrey and JJ Ignotz. Kyle Jeffrey works for the Woods Beer and Wine Company, Treasure Island, California, as winemaker. He hired JJ Ignotz, a Professional Photographer, to photograph the bonsai trees.

The company is operated by the following:

Jim Woods, Founder & CEO
Matt Coelho, Founder

The photo shoot was accomplished with the help from BGLM volunteers – Gordon Deeg, Yuri Aono, Michal Tiede, Mike Roberto, Ashley Pouliot, Nicole Yabut, and Suzanne Muller.

This was no ordinary project! A total of 19 bonsai trees were selected from among the 160 bonsai trees that make up the collection at BGLM. Weeks before, BGLM volunteers tended to the bonsai trees in anticipation of them being photographed by JJ Ignotz. In taking on the project, a temporary photo studio was set-up within the BGLM workshop. It took most of the day to completely photograph all 19 bonsai trees.

The bonsai tree photographs will be transformed into artistic wine labels designed by JJ Ignotz for the Woods Beer and Wine Company (Woods Beer and Wine Company). The wine is featured at six local bars, brewpubs and wineries in the San Francisco Bay Area:

• Woods Cervecería – Mission, San Francisco
• Woods Outbound – Outer Sunset, San Francisco
• Woods Polk Station – Russian Hill, San Francisco
• Woods Lowside – Lower Haight, San Francisco
• Woods Cole Valley – Cole Valley, San Francisco
• Woods San Anselmo – Downtown, San Anselmo (Opening Soon)

Woods Beer and Wine Company plan to debut their new line of wine labels featuring BGLM bonsai tree photographs and artistic designs by JJ Ignotz from April 2026 through February 2027.

Their wine is sold by the brand name Woods Beer and Wine Company. The bonsai trees will be on the 2025 vintage of wine. They will have seven varieties of wines each with a bonsai tree for its label. They produce various wine types, some of  which can be found on their website (Previous Community Club Releases). The company is a very atypical winery with a number of options.

The wine can be purchased at any of their six bars or brew pubs in San Francisco and soon in San Anselmo. There is also an option to become part of their Community Club.

Every new vintage label for the wines will have an image from a variety of sources. In 2024, the labels included art from local San Francisco artist. One year the labels included images around Treasure Island, and another year, images from the Hubble space telescope.

In 2019, Kyle Jeffrey’s vision for a wine label was to takeoff from the name “Woods”.  The ideas began to form. What was the best way to incorporate an image of a tree or artist who drew trees or design the image of the texture of trees? All these ideas brought them to start doing research on small trees, and Googling “Museum for Bonsai Trees” only to discover there is a bonsai garden across the Bay! He and JJ Ignotz scheduled a tour of the Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt and found their next vintage label images.

Their beer wine hybrid “Divine Origin Series” won the World Beer Cup’s Gold Medal in 2025. The prestigious award recognized excellence in craft brewing and cider production, and the series has been celebrated for its quality and innovation. The World Beer Cup is referred to as the “Olympics of Beer,” and the Gold Medal is a symbol of the highest level of achievement in the craft beverage industry.

Category 18: Experimental Beer – 129 Entries

• Gold: Divine Origins Carignan

Surely, the artistry of wine labels merits its own competition format, honoring them as an art form.